


Sleeping Beauty

by notcrypticbutcoy



Category: Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare, Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types, Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare, Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: But mostly fluff, Cuddling, Fluff, M/M, Malec, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Protective Magnus, Tired Alec, shameless fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-08
Updated: 2016-07-08
Packaged: 2018-07-22 08:52:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7428247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notcrypticbutcoy/pseuds/notcrypticbutcoy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Magnus' bed looked so nice and warm and comforting, and Raziel, it smelt like Magnus, all over, and Alec wanted to bury himself in it and never leave. Even his pillow smelt of Magnus' shampoo.</p><p>***</p><p>When Alec gets home from a mission absolutely exhausted, all he wants to do is get home and cuddle with his boyfriend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sleeping Beauty

**Author's Note:**

> I pick and choose between book and show canon. It's a toss up. Do I fancy Alec with blue or brown eyes today? But I'm forever writing fics feat. Chairman Meow, and I am digging the new Malec height difference even more now than I was in January. So yeah. 
> 
> Enjoy this utterly pointless, shameless fluff. There's literally nothing here. It's just fluff.
> 
> ***
> 
> 31/07/16
> 
> The amazing Marber312 created an awesome piece of fanart for this fic, featuring grumpy, sleepy, cuddly Alec. Go check it out!
> 
> http://fav.me/dac3zob

  
Alec was exhausted. Truly, genuinely, bone-deep tired in a way he hadn't been for a long time. The kind of tired that made him stumble as he walked through the door of Magnus' loft, his vision slightly blurry, head swimming.

"Magnus?" he called out as he unbuckled his belt with fumbling fingers. "I'm home."

There was no response, except the barely audible pattering of claws along the hardwood floor. Chairman Meow appeared. He sat down in front of Alec, looking up at him with the kind of aloofness that could only be achieved by a cat, tail swishing back and forth behind him.

"Hey, Chairman," Alec said with a sigh, bending down to scratch at the cat's ears. The movement made him feel slightly nauseous; he straightened up, wincing as his tired muscles protested. If he was this tired after a long week when he was in his twenties, how tired was he going to be when he had a week of missions and was forty-something?

He dropped his bow and quiver next to his belt, finished taking off his boots, wondering how much Magnus would nag at him for leaving them like that, stained with blood and ichor, and headed towards Magnus' bedroom.

Magnus' bedroom, he wondered? He'd officially moved into the warlock's loft, albeit only last week. But he'd been sleeping in this room more often than the one back at the Institute for the last several months. Did it count as his bedroom, too? Their bedroom? His and Magnus'?

He liked the sound of that.

What he really, really wanted was to have a hot shower, wrap himself in one of his boyfriend's stupid fluffy robes, and cuddle with said boyfriend on the couch. And maybe have a nap. But Magnus wasn't home yet. Alec knew he'd had clients today—several, including a group of exceptionally important fae knights. Who knew what time he'd get back?

He felt the tension drain out of his body when he walked into the bedroom and saw the unmade bed, Magnus' clothes strewn around the room, one of Alec's sweaters dropped by the bathroom door from where Magnus had been wearing it this morning.

Exhausted, Alec sunk down onto the edge of their bed. He planned on sitting down just to take off his socks and jeans, and then go into the bathroom to have a shower, because he absolutely fucking stunk of death and decay, and it really wasn't pleasant.

But there was a problem. Because Magnus' bed looked so nice and warm and comforting, and Raziel, it smelt like Magnus, all over, and Alec wanted to bury himself in it and never leave. Even his pillow smelt of Magnus' shampoo, because Magnus had gone back to bed after they'd showered (separately) in the morning after a client had called up to cancel, and he'd smothered himself with Alec's pillow instead of his own.

Feeling a little bit like a creep, even though consciously he knew that people did this sort of thing all the time and that it wasn't really strange, Alec laid back against the ludicrous number of pillows on the bed, and inhaled deeply. His eyes closed. It was so soothing, relaxing into the soft cheeks and squishy mattress, surrounded by the comforting smell of his boyfriend.

It would only be a couple of minutes, Alec told himself. Just a couple of minutes, just to rest for a moment, and then he'd get up and have a shower. He was probably already getting blood all over the place, and Magnus would not be happy about that.

_Just a few minutes..._

Not thirty seconds after his head had hit the pillows, Alec was asleep, his breaths evening out.

***

Magnus strode into the loft in a huff, several hours after Alec was due to arrive home, unwound his scarf from around his neck and tossed it on the side table. Stupid fey, keeping him late because of their unreasonable demands.

He was about to shout out to Alec that he was home, when he saw the familiar bow and quiver laying on the floor, belt dropped next to it, not folded, boots still covered in grime and ichor. Magnus frowned. Alec never left his things like that.

Magnus righted then with a snap of his fingers, cleaning Alec's boots too, and then toed off his own shoes, draping his jacket over the back of the sofa. He padded through the loft, and called out Alexander's name. There was no response.

"Alec?" He peered into the kitchen. Nothing. Maybe he was in the bedroom, reading, or with headphones in. That was more likely. Unless something bad had happened, and he was in the bedroom because he—

No. Magnus wouldn't let himself think about that. Alec was fine. He'd have been told if anything had happened.

Magnus pushed open the door, relieved when he caught sight of his boyfriend on their bed, immediately upon cracking the door open. "Alexander, I—" He stopped, and smiled softly. "Oh."

Alec was sprawled out on his stomach, hair in utter disarray, limbs splayed everywhere, and he was snoring slightly on every other inhale. He only snored when he was particularly tired, Magnus had noticed, over the weeks they'd been dating.

Unfortunately, while the picture was honestly the most adorable and heart-warming thing Magnus had ever seen in his life, Alec was filthy. He was still fully-clothed in all his gear except his boots and belt, blood soaked into the sleeve of his jacket (not his—there was no way he'd have his arm pressed into the mattress like that if he'd injured it) and ichor all over him.

"Oh, my darling." Magnus pushed the door shut behind him in case Chairman Meow decided to come in and investigate, and walked towards the bed, resting his hand on Alec's shoulder, giving him a once (or twice) over to check that he wasn't hurt.

For a moment, he debated letting Alec sleep. He was clearly exhausted. But he also stank, and was not sleeping in a comfortable position anyway—he'd hurt when he woke up.

So Magnus stroked his fingers tenderly through Alec's hair, bent his head closer to Alec's ear, and whispered, "Alexander. Wake up, sweetheart."

Alec made an unhappy sleepy sound, and shifted a little, away from Magnus' hand. Magnus smiled.

"Come on," Magnus encouraged him. "Just for a little bit. Just wake up for fifteen minutes. Then you can go back to sleep for as long as you like."

" _Mmmmm_ ," Alec protested.

Magnus chuckled. Alec's eyes fluttered open, and he lifted his hand to rub his knuckles across his eyes.

"Magnus?"

"Hey there, Sleeping Beauty." He let his hand drop to the mattress, and snapped his fingers to fill the bathtub with water just shy of too hot and plenty of bubbles. "Bath. Come on."

"I want to sleep," Alec mumbled, but he sat up, yawning, and followed Magnus to the bathroom.

It was a show of just how tired he was when he let Magnus strip him of his clothes, not protesting about being taken care of. Or, maybe, after months of dating Magnus, he was getting better at letting people look after him.

Magnus hoped it was the latter.

Alec nearly slipped as he stepped into the bath; Magnus' heart leapt, and he thanked every deity out there for the balance and quick reflex runes still burning half-heartedly on Alec's arms as he caught himself, and sank down into the water.

"Tilt your head back," Magnus said, once Alec was safely situated in the warm water. Magnus sat with one knee up on the side of the tub, and began to slide off his rings. "Let me wash your hair."

Alec looked uncertain. "You don't have to."

Magnus smiled at him as he set his jewellery down beside him, and reached for the bottle of shampoo. "No, I don't," he agreed. "And I won't, if you'd rather I didn't. But I'd like to. If you'd like me to."

"Okay." Alec held Magnus' gaze for a moment, then slid deeper into the water and dunked his head under for a moment. When he rose again, he shook the water out of his eyes, and offered Magnus a shy little smile. Magnus' heart ached.

Magnus uncapped the shampoo bottle and squeezed some into his palms. For several minutes, they were quiet as Magnus washed and rinsed Alec's hair, twice. Alec's eyebrows rose and his lips twitched when Magnus reached for the conditioner, but he didn't say a word in protest.

Victory.

Alec's eyes had closed, by the time Magnus was done. He dragged his fingers gently through Alec's wet hair. Alec turned his head towards Magnus' touch, letting out a soft humming noise.

"How about you finish up here," Magnus said, "and I'll make you something to drink?"

"That'd be nice." Alec blinked his eyes open, summoning a tired smile. "Something without too much caffeine?"

"Alright." Magnus dropped a kiss to Alec's temple. He stood up, flicked his hand to send Alec's filthy gear elsewhere, and moved towards the doorway.

"Wait!"

Magnus turned back. "Mm?"

Alec's eyes were soft. "I love you."

Magnus smiled. "I love you too, darling."

***

Ten minutes later, Alec emerged from the bathroom. Magnus glanced up from where he'd just finished making himself a coffee and Alec tea, and felt his expression soften when he saw that Alec had wrapped himself in one of Magnus' long, fluffy bathrobes. It was a dark red, deliberately purchased two sizes too big, and one that Magnus was partial to on cold winter nights. Alec wearing it made his stomach twist pleasantly.

"I made you tea," Magnus said, holding out the mug towards Alec as evidence.

"Thank you."

Alec wrapped both hands around the mug and inhaled deeply. He blew over the top of the steaming liquid before taking a sip, letting out an appreciative noise as he did.

He looked up at Magnus. Magnus recognised that look. It was his, _I'm Alec Lightwood and I pretend to be a fearless and stoic Shadowhunter but secretly I have emotions and right now I want to cuddle_ , look.

"Fancy a rest, now you've cleaned up?" Magnus asked, because it didn't seem like Alec was going to.

"I, ah." Alec looked embarrassed. "I'm pretty sure your bed's still covered in ichor from earlier. I'm sorry, by the way. I shouldn't have made your sheets dirty."

Magnus smirked. "Oh, you can make my sheets filthy-dirty _any_ time, Alexander." He winked. Alec blushed, and rolled his eyes. Magnus gentled his voice. "Don't worry about it. It's nothing I can't fix. Come on."

Magnus extended the hand that wasn't holding his coffee, and, when Alec took it, led his boyfriend into their bedroom. He set his coffee down to snap his fingers and clean the sheets. Turning, he tugged at the knot tying Alec's (well, his) bathrobe up, pushed it back off Alec's shoulders, and took Alec's tea out of his hand to pull it all the way off. He was only slightly disappointed to see that Alec had put on a pair of boxer shorts.

"Finish your tea," Magnus said. "I'll be back in a moment."

Yawning, Alec nodded, already reaching for the soft material of the comforter, one knee on the mattress to climb in. Magnus let his gaze linger on the bruises dotted across the back of Alec's shoulders—he'd be asking about how Alec had got those in the morning. But not now. Now, Alec clearly needed to sleep off his exhaustion.

After gathering the things he'd need to translate a simple demonic text for the fey he'd been attempting to work with for hours already today. It wouldn't take him long, and it wasn't particularly difficult, but the Seelie knights were adamant that it be done within the next two days. Magnus had, of course, charged them extra for that. But it wouldn't be a particularly taxing task to get done while Alexander slept. Which seemed ideal.

Magnus opened his mouth to say something when he walked back in, two heavy books under one arm, a pen and a notepad in the other hand, but promptly shut himself up when he saw the steady rise and fall of Alec's breaths, deep and slow. He was asleep. Magnus had barely been out of the room two minutes, and he'd already fallen asleep.

Carefully, trying his best not to wake Alec, Magnus settled himself on the bed, took a swig of his coffee, and flipped open the book to the section the Seelies wanted translated, propping it against his bent-up knee.

Beside him, Alec shifted. Magnus moved his arm to give him space. Alec didn't open his eyes, but he lifted his head and nestled himself into the slight curve of Magnus' waist and hip, slinging him arm over Magnus' stomach. Magnus smiled, and settled his arm around Alec's shoulders, leaving his other hand free to work.

"You're comfy," Alec mumbled.

"I'm glad you're satisfied. Feel free to use me as a human pillow any time," Magnus said, teasingly fond. "Go on. Sleep. You need it."

Alec sighed against him. "My sleep schedule is going to be fucked."

"How about I wake you up in two hours and take you to dinner?"

"That sounds nice." Alec turned his head and pressed a kiss to the hand Magnus had rested lightly on his shoulder, fingers brushing his collarbone. "Really nice."


End file.
